Smoking cravings are down
As millions of dollars continue to be spent on anti-smoking advertising, an Australian study has been the first to identify that anti-smoking advertisements reduce tobacco cravings in smokers but are not enough to make them quit
Presenting her findings at the Heart Foundation Conference – “Hearts in Focus” – Emily Kothe, a PhD candidate from the Department of Psychology at the University of Sydney said previous studies had not combined the two key aspects of tobacco cravings and the negative images found in anti-smoking advertisements.
“This is an important point of difference as it has led to research suggesting images using tobacco paraphernalia, such as lighters or cigarette packs, may actually induce cravings in smokers,” said Kothe.
“However, these studies only considered the effects of positive (e.g. attractive person smoking) or neutral (e.g. images of cigarettes lacking informative content) smoking cues, rather than the negative cues in anti-smoking advertisements,” she added.
The study participants included current smokers and ex-smokers aged 18 – 26. This age group is more likely to smoke than any other age group in Australia and who most often underestimate their personal level of risk.
“Anti-smoking advertisements have been proven to be effective in stopping people taking up smoking, but getting established smokers to quit is more challenging and that’s what we were most interested in,” said Kothe.
The study measured the urge to smoke pre and post the test in which participants were either shown an anti-smoking advertisement or a general, non-health related audio-visual package.
“Results show the advertising led to a 16% decrease in cravings amongst smokers, ex-smokers experienced no change in cravings pre or post the test and smokers who did not see the advertisement experienced a 12% increase in cravings over the same period,” said Kothe.
Despite the reported reduction in cravings, some participants felt the advertisements were not credible and that the illnesses arising from smoking were unlikely to affect them.
“We received comments such as ‘some of the particular diseases the advertisement displays might be a bit far-fetched; gangrene for example’. Others stated ‘being young and healthy, I don’t think the pictures shown (eg, mouth cancer) really relate to me’, and ‘…we are a long way from these things happening to us’,” said Kothe.
“There is still work to be done in convincing young people that certain health issues associated with smoking will definitely affect them. To overcome this, we may need to focus on more immediate consequences of smoking - the smell associated with being a smoker may have more impact than talking about gangrene,” she added.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the two main emotions reported from the study were disgust and worry.
“Smokers and ex-smokers reported disgust whereas worry was experienced by smokers only,” said Kothe. “Despite this and the decrease in tobacco cravings after viewing the anti-smoking advertisement, many smokers did not feel the advertisements were enough to make them quit.”
Heart Foundation CEO – National Dr Lyn Roberts said looking at the link between tobacco cravings and anti-smoking advertisements provides another important piece of evidence to show that we are on the right track.
“The single most important thing a smoker can do for their heart health is to quit smoking. Smoking is the leading single preventable cause of ill-health and death in Australia, claiming more than 15,500 lives per year so it is incredibly frustrating to hear yet again that young people are still choosing to smoke,” said Dr Roberts.
“It’s easy to rattle off the statistics but with three million daily smokers in Australia, the Heart Foundation still faces a tough battle in encouraging more people to quit. We hope the Federal Government will assist us with this challenge and agree to increase the tobacco tax,” concluded Dr Roberts.
